


Universal Resistance

by lilacsigil



Category: New Mutants (Comics), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Being Lost, Crossover, F/M, Resistance, Teleportation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:14:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22571590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilacsigil/pseuds/lilacsigil
Summary: Lost in Limbo, Magnus and Illyana are trying to find a way home when they accidentally show up on Bajor just in time to rescue members of the Resistance from execution. Magnus and the cell's leader, Kira Nerys, find that they have a lot in common.
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr & Illyana Rasputin, Kira Nerys/Erik Lehnsherr
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	Universal Resistance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sheliak](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheliak/gifts).



"This isn't the right planet, Illyana," Magnus said. They had emerged from Limbo into a beautiful green valley. The day was warm and a wide but shallow river ran lazily down the middle of the valley. 

"How do you know, Teach?" Illyana pointed at the blue sky and single sun. "It looks kind of Earth-y and the gravity feels right. I've never seen those kind of trees, I guess, but there's lots of places on Earth I've never been."

"The magnetosphere is wrong. Also, I think there's more than one moon."

Illyana whistled cheerfully. "Still, it's a lot nicer than our last stop in Limbo!"

"I can't argue with that," he replied, thinking with a shudder of the gravity traps and the purple slime rain. "We should at least rest here until you feel ready for another trip?"

"Until I feel ready? It was you who nearly collapsed fending off those Limbo flies!"

"Only because I was protecting you while – " Magnus sighed and remembered his role here. "All right, until _I_ am ready for another trip. Let me rest my terrifically ancient body for a while."

Illyana laughed. "Okay, don't exaggerate. You're only venerable, not ancient! Let's go get some water."

"Wait." He threw his arm in front of her. Being Illyana, she instinctively pushed forward anyway, but he didn't move and she stopped. 

"What is it?" she whispered.

"People, close by. Armed, I think. Let's take cover."

They quickly scrambled back against the side of the hill, under overhanging rocks. 

A few minutes later, they could hear the approaching footsteps clearly. Magnus used his power to make out the shapes of light armour and what seemed to be energy weapons, with some kind of battery power unit and no bullets. There were seven people in total, five of them armed and armoured, and two carrying no metal at all, not even jewellery. Magnus frowned. Those were not good odds. 

The group walked over the ridge and down the hill, about 100 metres away from their hiding spot. The five armed members of the group looked somewhat reptilian, with grey scaly skin and prominent neck ridges. The two shoeless, battered prisoners – a teenage boy and an old woman – pushed ahead of them appeared similar to humans, though with bumpy ridges at the bridge of the nose. 

Illyana put a hand on Magnus's arm. He turned slightly, and nodded to her, proud that she saw this the same way he did. The grey soldiers were pushing the prisoners up against the rock cliff face almost directly across from their hiding spot now, and haranguing them in a language Magnus had never heard before. The younger prisoner spat at them, and a soldier hit him in the face. 

Illyana whispered in Magnus's ear. "I'll take those soldiers for a one-way trip to Limbo like they deserve, you shield the prisoners."

"No, there's nothing on the prisoners to safely grab and I don't know how those energy rifles work. I'll deal with the soldiers, you get the prisoners clear. As quickly as you can, Illyana."

She nodded, and they swung into action. Magnus reached out his hand and ripped the weapons up and clear of the soldiers. As they cried out in surprise and shock, Illyana popped up through her teleportation disks, beneath the prisoners, and pulled them to safety. Two of the soldiers reacted quickly and rushed at the prisoners, but Magnus used their armour to slam them into the stone cliff face, and followed up with their slower fellows. 

Illyana stepped out of the hillside nearby, dragging the two prisoners with them. They were confused and disoriented, shouting in a different, equally unknown, language, but as the two pointed at Magnus and Illyana, there was one word Magnus understood: Maquis. He knew them as the French Resistance fighters against the Nazis in WWII and had no idea how the term had spread to whatever planet this was, but it was a term he would be proud to borrow in the interests of communication.

"Maquis," he said in reply, waving a hand at himself and Illyana. They repeated the word, "Maquis, Maquis," with broad smiles, though the boy still seemed somewhat ill from his trip through Limbo. It affected some people that way. Both were bruised and bloody, their wounds must be largely superficial, as they stayed on their feet and gestured for Magnus and Illyana to follow them. 

"Are we going, Teach?" Illyana asked. 

"I want to find out who those soldiers are, and what's going on," he replied. In truth, Illyana looked tired although, like any young person, she would deny it. The extra teleports, though only short distances, had taken the last of her reserves.

"Great! Me too! And why they're yelling a French word at us." 

"I'm pleased you've been paying attention in history class, at least."

"You're living history right in front of me, why wouldn't I?" She grinned broadly, and they followed the two they had rescued across the ridge and out of the valley.

Immediately over the ridge, Magnus detected more people nearby, but the older woman reassured him with a pat on the arm and indeed, it was another group of the bumpy-nosed humans who ran up to them. This group was better-dressed, though still in plain, earthy colours, with above-ankle trousers and loose cloaks. They had been moving fast – they were flushed and sweaty, breathing hard. All of them were heavily armed, and each wore a distinctive two-part earring. They glared suspiciously at Magnus and Illyana, but the two they had rescued gestured at them and repeated, "Maquis," as they told their story.

This seemed to be enough for the group to accept them, and a younger woman, with long auburn hair in a braid, approached them. 

"Thank you! Maquis! Weapon!" she said loudly and clearly in English, pointing over the ridge to where they had rescued the prisoners. 

"You want their weapons?" Magnus had no trouble sensing the rifles with the battery packs and, without needing to look, lifted them into the air, over the ridge and summoned them to land in a neat pile at the woman's feet. She looked surprised for a moment, then nodded and said something to the group in their own language. They quickly checked over the rifles. 

"Come. Us." She gestured, and, new weapons in hand, they all hurried down a shaly hill and away from the area. They obviously knew the territory well, as they moved without needing to stop and navigate. At one stage they all suddenly dropped to the ground near an overhanging cliff. Magnus and Illyana followed suit and two of the fighters threw their dirt-coloured cloaks over them. A few moments later Magnus felt some kind of small aircraft fly overhead, though it had a propulsion system he had never encountered before. After a few moments they all got up again and continued on, the ground ever rockier and the vegetation thinning out. 

He caught up to the woman who had spoken a little English. "Magnus," he said, gesturing at himself. "Illyana." 

"Kira," she replied, imitating the gesture. "Soon U-T." 

Magnus had no idea what she meant, and a quick glance at Illyana showed her just as confused, but Kira seemed confident, so he shrugged and followed her. 

They walked for about an hour, though the pace was not fast once they'd got clear of the original site, the rest of the group kindly matching their pace to their recently imprisoned comrades. There was plenty of water to drink, which they shared with Magnus and Illyana, and they broke out a kind of dried vegetable strip to chew, which was fairly bland but energising. 

"Are you all right, Illyana?" Magnus asked her. "I know I said we would rest soon."

"This pumpkin jerky stuff is pretty good," she replied, gnawing on it. "Nah, I'm good as long as I don't have to make any more stepping disks. Let's see where they're taking us."

The destination was a cave system, well-guarded by heavily-armed soldiers, who were nonetheless pleased to see the former prisoners alive and well. They passed through a series of tunnels that would thoroughly confuse anyone who didn't have the sense of direction that Magnus did, before reaching a larger settlement of perhaps a hundred people. There were a few children here, just as bumpy-nosed as the adults, though it appeared that only the older teens and the adults wore the decorative earring. Magnus was already starting to notice differences in the metals and decorative features used. 

Suddenly, he realised that he could understand what everyone was saying. It was oddly difficult to pin down what language it was – it felt similar to Charles speaking directly to his mind. 

"Teach, you getting this?" Illyana asked, hanging onto his arm. "They're speaking Russian now!"

"I'm not getting Russian…well, mostly not Russian," he corrected. 

"U-T! Universal Translator!" Kira told them. "You'll get used to it in a minute." Magnus stared in fascination: the movements of her lips didn't match the sounds he was hearing. 

"I know a boy who can do something similar," he replied, "Only with his mind, not technology. Perhaps this is how everything feels to him!"

"Thanks for saving Gen and Rizai. We only found out late this morning where they were going to be executed. Even at full speed we wouldn't have got there in time. We didn't expect Maquis to be on-planet!"

Illyana spoke up. "We're not actually Maquis. I mean, sure, those grey dudes sure seem to be bad guys and we weren't going to let them shoot prisoners, but we got here by accident."

Kira looked intensely surprised and a little suspicious. "Really? An accident? The only humans who care about the Occupation are the human members of the Maquis who are caught up in the same fight."

"We're not human, although we know of the Maquis," Magnus declared. "We are mutants, part of a minority group persecuted by humans."

"As far as I knew, you all stick together in your Federation. I've never heard of 'mutants'."

"There's not many of us," Illyana explained. "We have abilities different to regular humans."

"Oh, the way you brought the guns to you! And where you took Gen and Rizai!" Kira was catching on quickly. "That ability brought you here by accident?"

Magnus nodded. "Yes, exactly. Most humans hate and fear us."

Kira laughed, but it was a laugh of recognition, devoid of humour. "My entire planet, Bajor, is occupied by the Cardassians, who you've already met. The humans refuse to help us because of treaties. Many of us have escaped to an uncertain future as refugees, but others have been murdered, or forced into labour camps. Gen and Rizai were caught while bringing us information. They found out that the Cardassians are going to poison more of the farmland near here in an effort to drive us into the towns, under their control, where they can ration out food or withhold it as punishment."

"That sounds very familiar," Magnus said, his voice flat. "My student and I would be only too happy to use our abilities to aid you."

"You're a teacher? You seem very familiar with rebellions, for a teacher."

"He hasn't been a teacher for long," Illyana interjected. 

"And I'm sure you know many people who combine teaching and rebellion."

"I do, that is true!" Kira smiled, finally, and Magnus smiled back. 

"Gag!" Illyana said, loudly and unhelpfully. 

The two elderly men who were in charge of the large stewpot doled out food to everyone from the rescue party, and Magnus could see there were serious meetings being held in various parts of this large central cave. Illyana had accepted the offer of a bedroll and a quiet nook for sleeping, but Magnus felt energised by the activity around him, felt alive at being part of a well-organised force for justice. He hadn't been part of anything similar since last time he was in Israel, before his status as a mutant started to outweigh his status as a Jew, both to those around him and in his own mind. 

The rifles that he had collected were sitting unattended in a pile on a blanket. 

"Excuse me," he asked the nearest adult, "Are these not useful?"

"Oh, they'll be useful for the power cells," the man replied. "But the Cardassians have started genetically locking their disruptors – if anyone other than a Cardassian is holding it, it just shuts down. Kira was hoping these older model disruptors would work for us, but they've been modified." He pointed to a glass panel on the hand grip. "See? That's new."

"Would you mind if I examined one? I don't know this technology in particular, but I'm very good at figuring out this kind of thing."

"You might be able make them work for us? Great! We're low on everything but basic projectile weapons, and those are no good against shielding."

"I'll try," Magnus replied, but he was hopeful. His powers let him feel exactly where the new hand grips had been grafted onto the older energy rifles, and how the modification had been achieved. 

It took him a while, dealing with circuitry much smaller than he usually saw, some of it glass-based, but he managed to isolate the power supply, remove the genetically-coded handgrip, and was in the process of re-connecting the power pack to the rifle when Kira appeared. 

"Tamu said you were working on these rifles." She sat down opposite, unceremoniously. "You've got an odd skillset for a teacher."

"As Illyana said, the teaching role is very recent. I'm sure you have friends who have had to acquire skills they didn't expect."

Kira laughed. "My family is from the old artist caste but I don't have an artistic bone in my body! I'm much better with explosives or a knife. Some of us just don't work in civilian life."

"I thought the same, but you might be surprised. I never wanted to be in charge of these students, but it has been unexpectedly…rewarding. And difficult. Most of them have been through a great deal in their short lives. So had I at the same age, but my people had been so thoroughly and deliberately destroyed that there was no-one to care for me."

"But you survived," Kira said, fire in her eyes, "And now you help them survive."

"More than just survive, I hope," he replied, and handed her the repaired rifle. "Here. I've bypassed the coded panel and the power lock, so this should work now. Better, considering that the coded panel is no longer draining the power cell."

She took the rifle and grinned. "Thank you! Can you show me how to do that? Or, hey! Rizai! Get over here!" 

The boy who Magnus and Illyana had rescued flopped down beside them. His injuries had been treated and he looked somewhat bruised but well on the mend, with all the speed of a healthy teenager. His cropped blond hair reminded Magnus of Sam, and that they couldn't stay here forever, no matter how justified Kira's cause. He had sworn to watch over the New Mutants, and he would not break that promise. 

"Rizai wants to be an engineer," Kira explained. "He's good with machinery."

"And bombs," he added, cheerfully. "But really, I want to get my hands on a Cardassian patrol ship. I bet I could figure out their sensor sweep patterns."

Kira punched him lightly in the arm. "I would have saved pieces of that shuttle for you if I'd known! Next time, then."

He shrugged. "You couldn't have got the whole thing all the way to base anyway. I'm not going on tomorrow's mission, but…next time."

"I'll see what I can bring you," Magnus told him. "If they're like that small ship that flew overhead while we walked here, I should be able to carry it easily enough."

The boy's face lit up in delight. "Great! And Kira knows how to disable the trackers – Kira, tell him about that time you stole a patrol ship and blew up their sensor array!"

Kira laughed, but Magnus encouraged her. "No, tell me!"

"All right, so they'd assigned me to clean cargo holds, which meant I had access to their ships. That was their first mistake."

They talked long into the night as they worked on the rifles, with only occasional interruptions from Illyana. She was much more interested in hanging out with the other teenagers, who were sampling the vodka-like drink that someone had distilled in another part of the cave system. Magnus was a little sad that she fitted right in with this group of young resistance soldiers; but also proud of her resilience and energy. She had no hesitation in agreeing to come fight in the next day's raid – in fact, she was so bloodthirstily eager that Magnus had to slip into his role as teacher and remind her to save her energy so that they could, with any luck, try again for home. 

He explained it to Kira. "Illyana's power works by transporting us to another dimension and then back into this one, but she doesn't always have the best control of distance or time. Sometimes I wonder – when she's an adult, if she could take us through time to before the war where my people were murdered. If that's even something that can be undone. Maybe there's anchors in time if too much would change. "

Kira smiled at him, her eyes reflecting the firelight and taking on the deep auburn tones of her hair. "You think too much. I save my brain for tactics and leave the philosophy to the Vedeks."

Magnus was about to protest, when she leaned forward and kissed him. He was behaving like Charles, trying to solve the problems of the world by talking about them. "Maybe you're right."

"I usually am!" She led him by the hand to her quarters, a small cave lit by a dimly phosphorescent fungus on the roof. "Besides, tomorrow we may die, yes?"

"Yes," he replied, and kissed her back. 

In the morning, several people noticed the two of them emerging together, and he was prepared to defend Kira's honour, but instead the other resistance members were fondly amused. 

"You're Kira's good luck charm this time!" the old woman they'd rescued, Gen, told him, serving up an extra-large bowl of breakfast stew with flaky flatbread on the side. 

"Oh, don't tell me you wouldn't have," Kira joked to Gen, and both of them laughed. 

Illyana sidled up to Magnus, looking queasy. "Hey, Teach, you could have warned me about drinking the night before a fight."

"A time-honoured tradition, Illyana!"

"And not the only one!" Gen helpfully added.

"I said last night, and I say it again, _gag_." Illyana immediately looked as if she regretted making that noise, turned even paler, and wandered off in search of water.

The raiding party – Kira leading six other fighters, plus the two mutants – set off not long after dawn, through rocky hill country. 

"We can't cross the plains – they'll spot us instantly – so we have to circle around," Kira explained. "The plains have been farmland for generations, but there used to be big jumja trees winding through the farms. The Cardassians burned them all down because the leaves and branches were so thick that it interfered with their scans."

"And now the land is all drying out." This was another resistance fighter, a tall man with dark hair, who was carrying the surprisingly small universal translator unit in his pack. "My parents and my sister's family still farm down there, but the yield is less every year."

"It's going to be reduced to nothing when they poison it all." Kira's tone was grim, but there was a bounce in her step and she radiated energy and purpose. She was in her element on this mission. 

By noon, they had crossed the rocky lower slopes of the mountain and followed a fast-flowing but narrow river downhill. Illyana stopped a few times to sip water from it, splashing her face to keep cool. She was recovering quickly from her hangover, at least.

There was a faint visual shimmer in the distance which Magnus also felt as a magnetic distortion, but couldn't make out any details. 

"Is that their base? It's shielded in the same was as that ship that flew overhead."

"Yeah, that's it. It stops anyone walking or beaming into the base." Kira turned to Illyana. "But that won't stop you getting in?" 

"It might stop Nightcrawler – that's a teammate of ours who can teleport – but makes no difference to me! Line of sight is easy peasy, lemon squeezy."

Magnus had no idea how the U-T translated that phrase, but all the Bajorans laughed. 

As they got closer, the shimmer resolved into a large, fenced military base with several of the not-very-aerodynamic airships out on the tarmac. Crews were moving around them, fitting them on each side with large tanks that had sprinkler nozzles at the base. Three tall chemical tanks loomed above the tarmac.

"Gen was right," another soldier muttered to Kira. "They're going to poison everything."

"Not everything. They'll never hit the raktajino groves. They're worth too much."

"Can't feed your children on raktajino beans." The soldier shook his head. "Still, I'd kill for a cup right now."

"As long as it's a Cardassian you'd kill, we're all on the same page." Kira pointed down the hill with her newly-adapted rifle. "IIlyana, how close do you need to be?"

"I could do it from here, but if we get a little closer I'll be able to see past those big cylinders and pop us up behind there."

"Perfect." Kira put up the hood of her cloak, and everyone else followed suit, using the camouflage of the dusty-coloured fabric. They were still a long way from the base, but their position was more exposed here. 

Magnus took Illyana's arm as they shuffled down the steep slope. "Are you sure you'll be accurate enough? I know that the distance and the shielding don't matter to you, but you're most precise when your target is right in front of you."

"Yeah, don't worry. The hangover's gone; Rizai gave me some herbs to chew. And now I'm ready for a fight. Don't tell me you're not!"

Magnus smiled at her eagerness. "Of course I'm ready. Make sure you stay under cover: we don't fully understand the weapons on this planet."

"Sure thing," she replied with an eyeroll that told him the exact opposite. 

The ground under their feet now grassy rather than rocky, they could see around the tall tanks. Illyana nodded at Kira. "I'm good to go."

The Bajorans piled their supplies and long cloaks behind a large boulder, and ran a final check on their assorted armaments. Magnus checked the alignment of the base with the planet's magnetosphere – not that it really mattered, but it would make him more precise – and Illyana stretched and yawned, though Magnus could see her making a careful analysis of the target area out of the corner of her eye. She just didn't want to look like she was taking this seriously. 

"Let's go," Kira told her, and Illyana created a stepping disk beneath their feet. The fall into Limbo was brief but always disorienting, and Magnus could hear one of the Bajorans immediately vomiting as they floated momentarily adrift in the hideous purple-tinged landscape. Illyana was in full demonic form, horns and goat legs, eyes flaming, but the Bajorans didn't react in horror as many did: it must not be culturally relevant to them. With a slice of the Soul Sword, she opened another portal in front of them, and suddenly it was down and they were all falling into it. 

The entire group landed awkwardly behind the chemical cylinders, only Magnus and Illyana on their feet. 

"Perfect!" Illyana said, taking a bow. She was still partially armoured and had her sword in hand, ready to fight. 

The Bajorans, apart from the man who was still on the ground vomiting, quickly took their assigned positions and, on Kira's signal, started firing at the airships. 

Magnus reached out a hand and started ripping the engines out of the blocky little airships, and, as soon as he had a better understanding of their construction, crushing the forward-mounted weapons as well. 

Guards ran out, shouting and returning fire, and they, unlike the Bajorans, were armoured. The armour felt very odd to Magnus, a dead spot in the swirling currents of electromagnetism, but he supposed deadening material made sense as protection against beam weapons. There were a lot of the grey-skinned soldiers, and throwing each of them to the ground individually was taking too long, so Magnus rolled an airship into them. 

Kira and her fighters were out among the grounded ships now, blasting consoles and navigational equipment into uselessness, but more and more grey-skinned soldiers were emerging from the large building at the far end of the tarmac, and some had heavier weaponry. 

Illyana suddenly appeared behind the soldiers, slicing through the power generator on their cannon-like device with her sword, then vanishing into the ground again. 

When she appeared back at the chemical tanks, Magnus snapped at her. "Keep cover, Illyana!"

"And let everyone get shot? No way!" 

"Then at least be strategic! They're bringing another cannon out: I'll drag it away, you open a stepping disk beneath it and bring it here."

"Will do!" She was immediately focused again, even though the effective result was that she would be under cover as Magnus wanted. He didn't envy Dani trying to keep Illyana on task in the field.

The cannon device was mostly metal and Magnus had no problem wrenching it clear of the Cardassian soldiers and up into the air. Illyana formed a disk beneath it and safely brought it through Limbo to land fully intact at their feet. 

"Well done!" Magnus shouted over all the chaos and caught sight of Illyana's smile in response. 

The vomiting Bajoran finally clambered to his feet, wiping his mouth. "I'll set it to detonate under the chemical tanks if you can get us out of here in time."

"Tell me where!" Magnus replied. The man pointed and he dragged the heavy weapon to the spot. 

The shimmering dome around the base suddenly vanished and a vastly larger airship appeared in the sky. It was at least the size of the Xavier School, which was startling thing to suddenly see above them. The ship was glowing faintly red with the heat of entering the atmosphere, and vaguely manta ray shaped, with large and obvious weapons bristling from the front and sides. The grey-skinned soldiers cheered. That would be alarming enough, but then they started running full-tilt away from the base.

"Should we get out of here?" Illyana asked, suddenly a lot less sanguine.

"Get ready," he told her, and saw the Bajorans turn as fast as they could and sprint towards their position by the chemical tanks. 

Magnus stepped out from the cover and stretched his hand out towards the enormous ship. He could feel power building up quickly in two areas near the lower front of the vessel, and it was going to be too much for him to stop. The burning hot metal of the ship's hull gave him an idea. 

"Illyana! A disk, right now, anywhere on the ship that's facing us!" 

"Okay!" she yelled back, and, standing beside him in the fierce radiant heat of the ship's hull, threw a stepping disk against the hull. It was insignificantly tiny compared to the size of the vessel, but Magnus could feel exactly where and what it was, and used his power to rip outwards from that one vulnerable spot. 

The hull was not a metal he had encountered before, but it didn't matter. It was superheated and now perforated by Illyana's power, and he used every fibre of his being to shred a massive, destabilising hole in the hull. 

"Prophets save us!" Kira yelled as she dashed past, but her expression was wild and thrilled, not frightened at all. 

The charge at the front of the ship was concentrated in the of the weapons arrays closest to them, so Magnus spent the last of his strength grabbing the ripped hull and flipping it upwards, perpendicular to its previous position. Massive bursts of energy shot into the sky, disintegrating the top of the nearby mountain. It would have obliterated any person it hit. 

"Come on, Teach!" Illyana shouted, and Kira dragged him, staggering, to the group. The ship was lurching into a turn towards them – he'd delayed its attack but it wasn't badly damaged. He stumbled into the stepping disk Illyana had thrown down and fell into Limbo, the blast of the overloaded cannon beneath the chemical cylinders scorching his back as it closed. 

They fell through Limbo and into another disk, then found themselves on the mountainside, behind the boulder with their discarded belongings. 

"Go, go, go!" Kira shouted, and they scooped up their packs and cloaks, and slipped into a narrow ravine in the mountain. Magnus was working hard to stay upright, but the Bajorans pulled him along and he stayed on his feet for their sake.

Blasts shook the ground, and they all covered their heads, but nothing more than a few pebbles dropped into their shelter. Kira kept everyone moving until they arrived, dusty and footsore, back at the swift river that they had followed earlier. They were much further upstream than they had been this morning, and the grass had given way to rocks again.

"Take a break," she declared, and everyone collapsed to the ground in relief. 

Illyana wasn't still for long, edging over to the river. She was no longer in her armour or carrying her sword, but none of the Bajorans seemed to feel the need to ask her about Limbo. 

"Hey, Teach! There's something about this river. I think…I think it's got a connection to home."

"Really?" That got Magnus up onto his feet. "How can you tell?"

She shrugged. "Sometimes locations link to each other. That temple in the Caribbean where I first fell into Limbo? It links to an oasis in ancient Egypt. I don't know why."

Kira pointed upstream. "There's a cave not far from here where one of the Orbs of the Prophets was hidden for a while, before the Cardassians stole it."

"Orbs?" Magnus asked.

"They're sacred gifts sent to us by the Prophets – powerful orbs filled with energy that nobody has ever been able to analyse. The Cardassians fear them as weapons, but that's not what they are. Gazing into them produces visions, and prophecies – that's how the Prophets communicate with us."

"So they took them to steal your hope?" Magnus asked. 

"That, and the Cardassians really did think they were dangerous. As close as we get to them now is to visit the temples and the hiding places where they were once kept."

"Also, the water tasted exactly like the water at home," Illyana said. "That's why I kept drinking it, trying to work out why it was familiar."

Kira stared further up the hill. "It was the Orb of Time that was hidden here. I've never seen it myself, but it's supposed to connect people across time and space. Maybe its resonance can guide you home."

"Perhaps." Magnus was unsure of what Kira told him, and too drained to manage much more than a general reading of the area himself.

"I'll take you there – it's not far." 

"Thanks!" Illyana said with enthusiasm, and Kira looked so pleased that Magnus didn't want to argue.

It was a short and easy walk up to the small cavern. It would have been hard to spot without Kira's help, as its entrance was a low crawlspace hidden behind a scratchy mountain shrub. A thin but regular trickle of water came from the cave to join the river below them. 

Kira and Illyana scrambled into the cave and Magnus groaned and followed them. He might be fit and well-fed these days, but after a long hike and a battle, he was feeling his age. 

The narrow tunnel quickly opened out into a small cave, lit through a crack in the ceiling, the light falling directly on a natural rock formation that resembled a small plinth. Nothing was on the plinth now, but Kira muttered something under her breath that sounded like a prayer, touching her earring as she did so. There was a shallow pool of water around the plinth, which must be a natural spring or it would have dried out long ago. 

"Yes, here!" Illyana declared loudly, oblivious to Kira's actions. Magnus glared at her, but he wasn't sure why: it wasn't as if he followed God anymore himself. The disrespect, perhaps. 

"Is it all right if I touch the stone?" he asked Kira, who nodded. 

He put his hand on the plinth and he too could feel what Illyana had described: a faint but definite feeling of home. Not his childhood home, nor any of the other places he had lived, but the school. It was more of a taste or smell than anything else. 

"See?" Illyana put her hand over his. "There's something special here."

Kira grinned. "You helped Bajor and the Prophets are looking out for you! As much as they can, so far away."

She didn't step in the water or touch the plinth, but she did pull Magnus down a little so she could kiss him. "Good luck in your fight," she said. 

He kissed her back. "And in yours. I hope we meet again."

"Okay, okay, I'm not going to say it," Illyana complained. "But yeah, I hope you free your planet from those grey-skinned jerks."

She opened a disk right by the plinth and, unlike any other stepping disk, it glimmered purple; Kira gasped and touched her earring again, bowing her head in respect. Magnus and Illyana stepped into it, thoughts focused on home, and they were gone.


End file.
